


Don't Sweat It

by tatertotarmy



Category: Tales of Vesperia
Genre: Gen, Tales of Secret Santa 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 08:32:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17220503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatertotarmy/pseuds/tatertotarmy
Summary: With Estelle missing in Hallure, Yuri goes out to get to the bottom of where exactly she ended up.





	Don't Sweat It

“Hey Karol, you see Estelle anywhere?” 

Karol looked up with a thread pulled tight in one hand with his backpack in another, deep in the middle of being patched up from a particularly rough fight earlier in the day. He blinked, taking a long moment to process Yuri’s question, the older man leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

“Not for a while. She left after we got back,” Karol answered, looking back down to push the needle through his backpack again, pulling the thread through, “Why?”

“Haven’t been able to find her anywhere in town. Can’t say I’m not worried,” Yuri sighed, scratching the back of his head, “You just been patching that thing up?”

“Yea, I had to go get some thread with Estelle,” Karol looked back up as the thread pulled tight, “I’m not sure what she did after I got back here, though. I-I hope nothing’s wrong.”

“I hope so too,” Yuri sighed, stepping away from the wall and making his way to the door of the room, “Let me know if you find her, alright?”

“O-Okay…!” Karol answered, a bit of nervous tension in his voice, before he went right back into sewing whole-heartedly again.

Yuri walked out and shut the door behind him, sighing. 

This was supposed to be a normal stop at Halure. A normal, relaxing stop with nothing bad happening during it. But, of course, Yuri lost track of the princess of the group. Normally, that wouldn’t be a bad thing. Even if he wasn’t with her, someone else in Brave Vesperia would keep an eye on her. It was a lingering anxiety from when she was taken from them. That the second she wandered off somewhere, she would be snatched up by someone. Even if it wasn’t someone like Alexei, she definitely was…gullible. And that was being kind.

Just think. Instead of being kidnapped by Schwann, she would just get wrapped up with someone like Raven.

Of course, the old man was accounted for this time, so anything else would be a wild card that he didn’t want to deal with. Not on his nice…relaxing –

“Why the long face there? Anythin’ ya’d like ta talk to ol’ Raven about?”

Speak of the devil…

“Perfect timing, old man,” Yuri turned towards Raven, who was leaning on a wooden railing along the main pathway through town, looking just like his usual self, “You seen Estelle anywhere?”

“Maybe,” Raven chuckled, a sly grin on his face.

“You know you’re the worst person to say something like that, right?”

“Hey, hey!” Raven frowned, scratching the back of his head, “I thought I was in the clear for all that! Ya know, after you guys gave poor Raven a big ol’ beating.”

“Didn’t mean it like that, but alright.”

“Don’t know whether that’s worse, but…” Raven sighed, “Let’s just say that the little princess told me to keep her whereabouts a big ol’ secret.”

“Why is that?” Yuri rose an eyebrow.

“Don’t got a clue,” Raven shrugged, turning around to look out at the fields around Hallure, “Ya could go find out for yourself.”

“Really? Thought she told you to keep it a secret.”

“Doesn’t mean ol’ Raven can’t tell ya where he was twenty minutes ago.”

“Remind me to never tell you a secret.”

“Good lesson ta learn, kid,” Raven grinned, looking back over at Yuri, “Especially if it’s somethin’ that interests me. But if ya wanna know, I was up near the base of that big ol’ tree. And the princess was acting mighty suspicious.”

“Really, now?” Yuri looked up towards the tree, grinning a bit, “Well, might be worth it to check out.”

“Just be sure to let ol’ Raven in on the secret, right?”

“Maybe. If I feel like it,” Yuri put his hands behind his head, grinning as he ignored Raven’s protests as he began his walk up the path towards the base of the tree.

The walk didn’t take long, all things considered. And strangely, once Yuri reached the top of the town, practically stepping over any roots poking out from the ground, he saw no sign of anyone up there. The top was usually devoid of anyone aside from those looking at the tree close-up, and it appeared that this was the same as any other day at Hallure.

“Seriously?” Yuri spoke, scratching his head.

And right as he spoke, he heard a hushed gasp, a shake of branches.

Yuri stopped, looking over towards a nearby bush to see it shake slightly and then abruptly stop.

He stood there silently for a moment, staring down the bush.

And then he took a step forward. 

And another.

The bush moved abruptly again, something on the other side suddenly moving away.

“Not so fast, there!” Yuri called out, pulling out his blade and throwing the sheath along the path where the movement was going.

“W-Woah!” 

A new voice pipped up, a figure with pink hair immediately standing up and stumbling backwards from the sheath, something curled up in her arms. She looked bewildered as her eyes met Yuri’s, and then her cheeks flushed red in a mixture of embarrassment and irritation.

“Yuri! Why are you always throwing that around?” Estelle spoke, looking more and more flustered with each passing second, “Someone could get hurt!”

“Well I was trying to catch whoever’s sneaking around,” Yuri stuck his blade in the ground, crossing his arms, “So what are you sneaking around for, Estelle?”

“N-Nothing,” Estelle spoke, curling whatever was in her arms closer to her.

“Estelle…”

“Oh…!” she looked down to her bundle, and then back to Yuri, and back to the bundle, and back to Yuri, “You have to promise you’ll keep this a secret, okay?”

“I promise on Raven’s life,” Yuri snorted, walking over towards Estelle, “So what do you have there?”

“Well…” Estelle paused for a moment, looking down to her bundle, “You know how it’s going to get cold soon, right? Most of us don’t really have clothes for the cold…and I’m not sure if we’ll have enough to really get a lot of warm clothes. So…”

“So?”

“So I wanted to make sweaters?” Estelle spoke, her cheeks a bit pink, “It’s cheaper to get the supplies than to just buy them…and I did want to give them a personal touch.”

“I didn’t know you could make sweaters, Estelle,” Yuri looked a bit impressed, “That’s pretty impressive, there.”

“Well…”

“Well?”

“I…tried?”

Slowly, Estelle unfurled the bundle in her arms. And in Estelle’s arms was a big, red sweater. It looked pretty warm…but that wasn’t what Yuri was focused on. Because in the front of the sweater was possibly the ugliest design he had ever seen in his life. It was as though the person who drew Yuri’s wanted poster tried to sew a snowman on this poor sweater. The smile was lopsided, the carrot nose went out way too far, the eyes were strange googly eyes, and there was snowflakes all around this snowman made of flashy sequins that only a small, blind child would find to be beautiful.

Yuri stared for a long moment.

And then snorted.

“I knew it!” Estelle’s face turned bright red, curling her sweater back up, “It didn’t turn out right at all!”

“No, that’s not it…” Yuri was trying his hardest to keep his laughter to himself, “It’s just…creative.”

“Yuri!”

“No, seriously! It is good for a first attempt!”

“But not good enough to wear, right?”

“Come on, it’s plenty good to wear,” Yuri finally managed to swallow his laughter, putting on a grin, “It’ll be warm _and_ we won’t lose track of whoever’s wearing it. So we won’t get separated at all.”

“You’re just trying to be nice.”

“So?” Yuri chuckled, rustling up Estelle’s hair, “You still made it, so I’m sure anyone would be happy to get that from you.”

“Even you, Yuri?” Estelle spoke, looking up at him with a bright smile.

There was a long pause.

“Well…I wouldn’t want to get the first creation of yours. I don’t feel like I deserve such an honor,” Yuri paused, looking down the path as a sly grin formed on his face, “But you know who would?”

“Who?”

“I think Raven would love that sweater,” Yuri threw an arm around Estelle, starting to lead her down the pathway back to town, “I’m sure that old man would appreciate something warm to wear. Especially something so fitting to his tastes.”

“You think so?” Estelle looked up at Yuri.

“Of course I do!” Yuri looked down at Estelle, “Just…when you give it to him. Say it’s a special gift from his karma.”

“Why?”

“Oh, you’ll know,” Yuri chuckled, “You’ll definitely know.”


End file.
